Down In The Root Cellar: Georgia's Land Lottery

Monday, May 1, 2017

Georgia's Land Lottery

Today's prompt hosted by Genealogy Girl is #land and has lead me to research more about Georgia's Land Lottery. I'm having great difficulty finding actual records. But I still wanted to write about at least two of my ancestors who were winners of the 1827 Land Lottery; William P Newell and Thomas J Nall - both on my paternal side. Their names are listed in the Reprint of official register of land lottery of Georgia, 1827 comp. by Martha Lou Houston; index prepared by Silas Emmett Lucas Jr.. (Easley, SC: Southern Historical Press, 1986). In fact, in my search for actual records for Thomas J. Nall in this lottery, lead me to an exchange between William P Newell and his brother-in-law, Clemmon Jones in some miscellaneous files from Troup County, GA, and that in turn lead me to discover William had also won land in this lottery. I have written briefly about William P Newell here.

Georgia actually held eight land lotteries between the years 1805 - 1833. They each followed this pattern:

The General Assembly passed an act that authorized the lottery and spelled out who would be eligible to participate and the grant fees that would apply.
The land to be distributed was surveyed and laid out in districts and lots. The surveyors sent the district and lot numbers to the governor’s office.
Eligible citizens registered their names in their county of residence. The names were sent to the governor’s office at the state capital. Beginning with the second lottery the names were copied onto slips of paper called “tickets” and placed in a large drum called a “wheel.”
District and lot numbers were placed in a separate wheel. (At first, blank tickets were added to this wheel, so that the number of tickets would equal the number of persons drawing.)
Commissioners appointed by the governor drew a name ticket from one wheel and a district/lot ticket from the other wheel. If the district/lot ticket was blank, the person received nothing. If the ticket contained a district/lot number, the person received a prize of that parcel of land. A ticket that contained a number was called a “Fortunate Draw.” With later lotteries (after 1820), when blank tickets were not added to the prize wheel, individuals whose names remained in the second wheel were considered to have drawn blanks.
Anyone who received a Fortunate Draw could take out a grant for the lot he drew, after paying the grant fee. If he did not take out a grant, the lot reverted back to the state to be sold to the highest bidder.

The eight land lotteries were held on the following years:
1805 (first)
1807 (second)
1820 (third)
1821 (fourth)
1827 (fifth)
1832 (sixth)
1832 (seventh or gold lottery)
1833 (eighth)

My ancestors took part in the 1827 Land Lottery

Five Counties were created and 202.5 acre lots were surveyed off.

Counties
Carroll: 16 districts (1-16)
Coweta: 9 districts (1-9)
Lee: 13 districts (1-13)
Muscogee: 24 districts (1-24)
Troup: 12 districts (1-12)

William Paul Newell won twice, one in district 9 and the other in district 3 of Carroll County. And Thomas J. Nall won his lot in district 10 of Troup County. During the time of the drawing, according to the above reprint, William was living in Henry County and Thomas was living in Clark County.

Here is an 1830 map of Georgia so that you can see where they were during the drawing in comparison to where their winning draw was located.

Yet, in 1830 William was enumerated in Capt Britain C Tyars District, Troup, Georgia. Thomas was enumerated in Henry County, Georgia. By 1840 Thomas has migrated to Merriwether and William was living across the state line in Chambers County, AL. My Thomas eventually migrates all the way to Texas where later died, presumably in Rusk County. It sure makes me wonder why they didn't stay on the land they won. Did they ever make a homestead there? Did they sell it? Or abandon it?

Here is a bit of information about how a person was eligible to participate in the Georgia Land Lottery.

There was an $18.00 grant fee to participate in the drawing. As well as other regulations that had to be met. Each condition or regulation could entitle you to 1 or 2 draws.

In order to be entitled to draw a person had to be:

Bachelor, 18 years or over, 3-year residence in Georgia, citizen of United States - 1 draw
Married man with wife or son under 18 years or unmarried daughter, 3-year residence in Georgia, citizen of United States – 2 draws
Widow, 3-year residence in Georgia – 1 draw
Wife and/or child, 3-year residence in Georgia, husband and/or father absent from state for 3 years – 1 draw
Family (one or two ) of orphans under 18 years whose father is dead, 3-year residence in state or since birth – 1 draw
Family (three or more) of orphans under 18 years, 3-year residence in state or since birth – 2 draws
Widow, husband killed in Revolutionary War, War of 1812, or Indian War, 3-year residence in Georgia – 2 draws
Orphan, father killed in Revolutionary War, War of 1812 or Indian War - 2 draws
Wounded or disabled veteran of War of 1812 or Indian War, unable to work - 2 draws
Veteran of Revolutionary War – 2 draws
Veteran of Revolutionary War who had been a fortunate drawer in any previous Lottery – 1 draw
Child or children of convict, 3-year residence in Georgia – 1 draw
Male idiots, lunatics or insane, deaf and dumb, or blind, over 10 years and under 18 years, 3-year residence in Georgia – 1 draw
Female idiots, insane or lunatics, deaf and dumb, or blind, over 10 years, 3-year residence in Georgia – 1 draw
Family (one or two) of illegitimates under 18 years, residence since birth in Georgia – 1 draw
Family (three or more) of illegitimates under 18 years, residence since birth in Georgia – 2 draws
Child or children of a convict whose father had not drawn in any of the former land lotteries – entitled to a draw or draws in the same manner they would be entitled if they were orphans

Reasons you were not eligible to draw:

Any fortunate drawer in any previous Land Lottery.
Citizens who volunteered or were legally drafted in the War of 1812 or the Indian War and who refused to serve a tour of duty in person or by substitute.
Anyone who may have deserted from military service.
Any tax defaulter or absconded for debt.
Any convict in the penitentiary.

In my search for actual records, I ended up on the Georgia State Archives website. Due to funding, and resources they will not look up or mail you records, even for a fee. They do however provide of list of professional genealogist in their area who will do this for you. I contacted a Mr. Evans who did a fantastic job of provided me with copies of the surveys and grants for each of my ancestors. I will attach two of the six records in this post so you can see for yourself what they looked like, and the information they contained.

Sometimes, in doing research I end up with more questions than I do answers. Census records don't indicate that these two ancestors ever lived on the land they won. But that doesn't mean they didn't. I have read a book about a family I am connected to, not related to, that lived in Spadra Township, Johnson County, AR. They traveled to California and back between census years. If that book had not been published, I doubt anyone would have guessed at the amount of land they covered in a short 10 years.I hope this post encourages you to take a little time to research this part of American History.

Until next time,
Becky

To see all six records in PDF format click here.

Georgia, Surveyor General, Plats, Land Lottery, 1827, Book JJJJ, Troup County, Districts 6‐11, GRG 2‐2252, Microfilm Drawer 51, Box 52, Georgia State Archives